OSU-Pittsburgh Postgame Quotes

Quotes from Oklahoma State players and coaches and Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi following Oklahoma State's 45-38 victory over Pittsburgh.

OSU Head Coach Mike Gundy

Opening statement:

"As usual, when you come to Stillwater, you get your money's worth. It was a great game for college football. Pitt's a really good football team. What they do on offense is very unique and gives us some serious issues, but we rallied back and were able to make some stops there after the delay. Then, obviously, we were able to hit the big stop-and-go route there on the perimeter. I'm very proud of the team. I told them in the locker room that they've learned another great life lesson in overcoming adversity and rallying back and getting prepared for the next week. That was awesome for those guys.

"Unlike last week where I said (Mason Rudolph) struggled, he played pretty good today. He missed a few throws. I think he missed maybe three, but overall his accuracy today was tremendous on deep balls. We felt like James Washington, Jhajuan Seales, Chirs Lacy and Jalen McCleskey had to go get balls, based on the coverage that Pitt is going to use. I'm very proud of them.

"In the end, the defense made plays in the last 10 minutes or however long that was. They were able to get stops when we couldn't run the ball offensively. We're just a guy off on a lot of plays. We're closer. We're just a guy or two off from getting a hat on a hat. We're making strides, but we've got to get much better. What concerned me late in the game was they were running the ball on us the first few drives. That made me nervous, but fortunately for us, it worked out and we were able to come out with a win.

"We were much better on third downs; 6-of-15 and Pittsburgh was 4-of-18 ,unlike last week...We had only 55 yards in penalties, but we had five penalties that weren't like us and we need to clean that up. We had a couple of offsides, we had an illegal substitutions. My man (Dillon) Stoner had a tough day. He had three penalties on special teams, so we'll get that adjusted and make it better. We had a punt that was tipped. The protection in the hole was good, but the technique was poor. We'll get that fixed next week.

"Overall, I was really proud of the team. We'll enjoy this one tonight and then get back to work. We've got a tough one next week."

On the lengthy weather delay:

"I'm not taking anything away from them, but what was interesting was that we gave them 14 points in the first half. Now they probably feel like they gave us some points too because we had some big plays...We put the ball on the ground on the 50-yard line, which is an unforced error and they gave us a quick post for a touchdown. Then we did the same thing in the end zone. They were able to keep overcoming adversity, because as you all know, it's a downer. The lightning delay gave us a great chance to go in and redraw offense and defense, change our schemes, walk through and get prepared for the remainder of the game."

On the progress in the run game:

"Well, as I mentioned earlier, it's not good enough, but we're just one guy away. One play, it's the right guard. The next play everybody is blocked, it's the left guard. Another play, everybody is blocked, and it's the right tackle. We're just one guy away on a lot of plays from being better in the running game. Over the last two years, we were three guys at a time away up front. We're making improvements. Rennie (Childs) played the best game he's ever played. He showed speed, he showed some allusiveness. Chris Carson is hurt, so we don't have him for a while. I liked the way Justice Hill ran. He was close to breaking a couple. He did a nice job for a true freshman."

On Mason Rudolph's performance:

"Mason came back. It's tough being a quarterback when you lose a game like that. It's tough being a head coach when you lose a game like that. He rallied back, so he did a nice job."

On cornerback Ramon Richards:

"It's interesting, with Ramon, he seems a little bit like Shaun Lewis. He's always in the right place at the right time. With Shaun, it seemed like every time you needed a play, he picked the ball up or intercept a pass. So far, Ramon has been in the right place in the right time."

On what he talked to Mason Rudolph about this week:

"Very little. I think he's pressing too much. When you're 20 or 21, and people talk about you being a potential first or second round draft pick. Then people make judgments or decisions on you, your ability to run, your deep ball, your arm strength and all of that. I think it affected him. I think he got caught up in some of that and he started pressing. We wanted him to know that we believe in him and that he needs to go play. The rest of it is going to take care of itself."

Offensive Coordinator Mike Yurcich

On Mason Rudolph:

"He played great. There's always room to improve. He should sit back and enjoy this one. He played tremendous at the end. He finished strong again with the game-winning drive, which is becoming commonplace for him. I'm proud of him and proud of everyone else too. Our offensive line was extremely protective today. Our run blocking was very good. Our tailbacks took care of the ball very well. Rennie ran hard and got around 100 yards, so it takes a whole unit to play well like that for a quarterback to have numbers like that. Obviously, it takes great receiver play, so hats off to everybody."

On Rennie Childs:

"He did have a good average today. We want to keep that going. It's nice to see a guy like that come through in a big way."

On Rennie's pace with Chris Carson injured:

"It's important. Anytime that you have someone go down, it's important to have guys step up. Where there's adversity, there's opportunity as well. It's nice to see Rennie step up and capitalize today."

Defensive Coordinator Glenn Spencer

On combating the Pittsburgh offense:

"Yes, I wish I would have had that answer at the beginning of the game. It's hard to create that. We will let them know about how our speed needs to be better. Everything is moving fast, and then we get the run at the edge trying to pull up the sweep and then they hit you on the zone. There are a couple things I had called that I threw out. We just couldn't adjust to it fast enough. Your number count has to change with the motion, so I had to simplify things a little bit.

On the fourth quarter defense:

"It doesn't surprise me, but it's always nice to see those things show up. Just like the heartbreak of last week and the triumph of this week, it's all about chiseling them into men. They have got to go through it. I hope they learn from it and their character strengthens."

Cole Waltersheid

On his play today:

"I just had a good week of practice. Did what I was supposed to do out there, what I was coached up to do all week. Everything just worked out."

On what they were doing during the delay:

"We just came in here and kicked back. It seemed like quite a while. We went over some defensive schemes a little bit. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while we sat here."

On the mindset coming out of the delay:

"Nobody wanted to come back in here right in the middle of the game. We just made sure we stayed focused in here and went back out there with the same mindset we had coming into the game.

James Washington

On his career day and what went right:

"The timing with the quarterback. Not with just me but with all the receivers. Mason was on time with every throw and the defense was getting those stops where we could get back on the field and make plays and that's what we were looking for this week."

On the mindset coming out of the delay:

"Just don't tense up. We are in a position that we want to be in. Gundy always tells us, 'It's OK to have your back against the wall. That's when you have to come out swinging.' That's exactly what we did."

On rebounding from last week:

"Oh yeah. After that game they told us just to clear our minds from that and have a great week and I think we did.

Jhajuan Seales

On his big catch:

"We went into halftime and made some adjustments to the play and executed real well. He bit on the first move. I was wide open and Mason hit me."

On the mindset coming out of the delay:

"Just try to win the game. We were up first and we had lost last week so just to try and overcome adversity and win the game."

On rebounding from last week:

"We feel very good. Coming together as a team, we hurt from that loss. We bonded together and had great practices and the scout team gave us great looks."

Rennie Childs

On his career day:

"I think today went very, very well. From the offensive line and for the wide receivers blocking on the outside and making plays. I'm very proud of our offense. Actually, I'm very proud of our whole team."

On his long touchdown run early in the game:

"I just read the whole like I do every day in practice and I accelerated. I just got lost in the game and just made a play."

On his mindset coming out of the delay:

"It was the same mindset as when the game started. Be a dog and go off."

On rebounding from last week:

"It feels very good. It boosted our confidence in our team, on both sides of the ball. Actually, in all three phases, with special teams and things like that, they did excellent, too. It just boosted our confidence."

Jordan Sterns

On the defenses day today:

"I think everybody did good. Pitt did a bunch of stuff to throw you off your game. They always had a little reverse in there with a zone play. We practiced it but it kind of took us off guard at first, the speed of it and the tempo that they run it at. We made our adjustments on the sideline and we started getting off the field. I'm just proud of everybody as a team. We came together and rallied."

On the adjustments from the long end around play:

"We practiced that all week. There weren't really any adjustments. We just had to reemphasize doing our jobs and getting our eyes right because a team like that, it's all about your mindset and being disciplined."

On the mindset from the delay:

"It was just go out there with energy. Don't go out there flat, go out there and have fun. Fly around and that's what we did. Defense came out, and that's probably the best football we played after the break. It was great. It was fun to be around, fun to be apart of."

On if it feels good rebounding from last week:

"Definitely. That's what our mindset was on. I don't think anyone is worried about last week throughout practice. Things happen and we bounced back. It was definitely a blessing to be where we are, 2-1. We start conference play next week. The real ball game. They all matter, but these are the ones that count. We are looking forward to going out and taking it one game at a time and building from here.

Pittsburgh Head Coach Pat Narduzzi

Opening Statement

"Obviously it was a disappointing ballgame. It was a long ballgame. I thought our defense played a better second half than first half. There were way too many big plays, but give them credit. Coach Gundy and them have a good football team. They are explosive and we knew that coming into the game. We knew the wideouts were good, we struggled catching them and covering them a couple of times. There's nobody more disappointed than our kids and I told them there's no reason to hold their heads down. They played well, they played to the end, even the offense in the two-minute, and we never quit. There was a lot of adversity there tonight and our kids continued to fight and sometimes you come out on the low end. They made one more play than we did, really, at the end. Regardless of what happened in the first half or the third quarter, it came down to those last few seconds. Our kids are hurting there, but we have to regroup, regather because we open up ACC play next week and that's where all of the focus and attention goes."

On the cornerback play:

"At times, there was supposed to be safety help, we rolled our corners up a lot, which you can't see with the naked eye, but you have to play ball - man coverage, period. Sometimes there is safety help and sometimes there's not. At times we just didn't play with good technique. We're looking back, but again, those are some good wideouts. Give them credit, they were a little bit better than we were today."

On handling the weather delay:

"We changed some things up. We had an hour and a half delay, and I think we came out of it OK. We had two or three three-and-outs, and we gave up one play and that's the ballgame. It was one big one and then you're wondering with 1:21 do you let them score - which we didn't. They made a play. It was a double-move and Avonte Maddox thought he could make a play on it, but he broke up and took off behind him."

On the deep pass opening up the run game for Oklahoma State:

"Not really. If you look at it, they had one run. I'm not sure where our backer was and Ryan Lewis just missed a tackle, which would have been a two-yard gain. But they had one run. You take that run away and they probably had 20 yards rushing. It was not the run game that we didn't defend well, it was the pass game."